Saturn’s rings are ‚very young‘

We’re looking at Saturn at a very special time in the history of the Solar System, according to scientists. They’ve confirmed the planet’s iconic rings are very young – no more than 100 million years old, when dinosaurs still walked the Earth.

The rings of Saturn may be iconic, but there was a time when the majestic gas giant existed without its distinctive halo. In fact, the rings may have formed much later than the planet itself, according to a new analysis of gravity science data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft.

Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 Recovered, Collecting Science Data

The Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 was brought back to full operational status and completed its first science observations just after noon EST today, Jan. 17. The instrument autonomously shut down on Jan. 8 after internal data erroneously indicated invalid voltage levels. The Wide Field Camera 3 was installed on Hubble in May 2009 during the last servicing mission. It has taken over 240,000 observations to date and is the most used instrument of Hubble’s current complement.

Genaue Startdaten von Boeings Starliner zur ISS stehen angeblich fest

China’s Moon Plants Are Dead

The moon is a lifeless world once again. The cotton plants that sprouted on the moon’s far side aboard China’s Chang’e 4 lander are dead, done in by the bitter cold of the lengthy lunar night, GBTimes reported today (Jan. 16).

Feature – ISS Horizions Mission Alexander Gerst

Horizons’ is the name of ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst’s second mission to the International Space Station.The mission name evokes exploring our Universe, looking far beyond our planet and broadening our knowledge. Alexander would also like to make people realise that there is always a chance to go beyond their personal horizons. Alexander will be launched on 6 June with US astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor and Russian cosmonaut Sergei Prokopyev from the Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan in the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft.Alexander will take over command of the International Space Station for the second half of his mission. Alexander Gerst is the 11th German citizen to fly into space. The astronaut is now in the last stages of training for his challenging spaceflight. The science programme is packed with European research: more than 50 experiments will deliver benefits to people back on Earth and prepare for future space exploration.

The wall of the world

ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst reflects on his second International Space Station mission called Horizons by reading an excerpt of Jack London’s novel “White Fang” first published in 1906. Images show the launch into space on 6 June 2018, docking with the International Space Station, Earth views and scenes from Alexander’s six-month stay on the orbital outpost.

Nasa’s InSight mission will target ‚Marsquakes‘

InSight will be the first probe to focus its investigations predominantly on the interior of the Red Planet. The lander – due to touch down in November – will put seismometers on the surface to feel for „Marsquakes“. These tremors should reveal how the underground rock is layered – data that can be compared with Earth to shed further light on the formation of the planets 4.6 billion years ago. „As seismic waves travel through [Mars] they pick up information along the way; as they travel through different rocks,“ explained Dr Bruce Banerdt, InSight’s principal investigator. „And all those wiggles you see on seismograms – scientists understand how to pull that information out. After we’ve gotten many, many Marsquakes from different directions, we can put together a three dimensional view of the inside of Mars.“

NASA educates Captain Kirk on weird blue light in Mars InSight photo

„No cause for alarm, Captain!“ That’s what NASA’s InSight mission team reported on Twitter Wednesday. William Shatner, Captain Kirk from Star Trek, had a pressing question for the space agency about a strange glow seen in an image from Mars.

NASA/JPL’s Emily Manor-Chapman on Mars InSight and girls in STEM

Emily Manor-Chapman is an engineer for NASA/JPL working on the Mars InSight mission that landed on Mars on November 26. The mission has been sending back pics from the red planet and is there to study what is below the surface. We chatted with Manor-Chapman about the mission and what they’re looking to find, as well as how she got into science and getting girls into STEM careers.

ISS-Umlaufbahn um 1,8 Kilometer angehoben

Astronauts Study Head and Eye Pressure, Wearable Body Monitor

Human research took precedence aboard the International Space Station today as the Expedition 58 crew explored how astronauts adapt to living in space. The orbital residents also performed more ordinary roles as computer technicians and plumbers.

Crew Studies Space-Caused Eye Pressure and Cultural Differences

The Expedition 58 crew focused again today on studying head and eye pressure changes astronauts experience while living in space. The crew then went on to more science hardware and life support maintenance aboard the International Space Station.

Tech Work and Life Science Ahead of Orbital Boost Today

Satellite and combustion technology are being worked on today aboard the International Space Station. The Expedition 58 crew also studied botany and psychology while the station raised its orbit in a planned reboost maneuver.

NASA has announced a crew change for Boeing Starliner’s first crewed flight, assigning veteran astronaut Mike Fincke to the flight after Eric Boe was pulled for medical reasons. The crewed test flight is due to launch in the second half of this year, assuming that an uncrewed test flight currently scheduled for the spring goes smoothly. Fincke will fly with NASA astronaut Nicole Aunapu Mann and Boeing astronaut Chris Ferguson, who previously flew for NASA.

Watch Ultima Thule Spin Like a Propeller in This Awesome New Horizons Flyby Video

The faraway object Ultima Thule spins into view in a dramatic new video captured by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft. New Horizons zoomed within just 2,200 miles (3,500 kilometers) of Ultima Thule in the wee hours of Jan. 1, pulling off the most-distant planetary flyby in spaceflight history. Ultima Thule lies more than 4 billion miles (6.4 billion kilometers) from Earth — 1 billion miles (1.6 billion km) beyond the orbit of Pluto, which New Horizons encountered in July 2015.

Fifteen years ago, early on the evening of Saturday 10 January 2004, over a dozen scientists crammed into a tiny, somewhat austere room at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) research centre in Berlin Adlershof to stare intently at two monitors. They were awaiting the first images from ‚their‘ experiment, the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC). Just over two weeks earlier, the Mars Express spacecraft, launched by the European Space Agency (ESA), had reached its destination and manoeuvred into a stable, elliptical orbit over the poles of the planet.

Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft will try to collect a sample from asteroid Ryugu during the week of 18 February, mission officials said during a press briefing last week. Should problems arise, a backup week is available starting 4 March. The team is now considering two sample collection sites, the smaller of which is just a few meters across.

Beyond Solar System / Milchstraße & Kosmos

Ricocheting Black Hole Jet Discovered by Chandra

As a black hole spins, it can produce a tightly-wound column of material, or jet, blasting away from it. Cygnus A is a galaxy in the middle of a galaxy cluster that has such a jet shooting away from a supermassive black hole at its center. Data from Chandra reveal this jet has bounced off a wall of hot gas, then punched a hole in a cloud of particles. By studying jets like these, astronomers can learn more about how black holes influence their surroundings.

Shredded Star Leads to Important Black Hole Discovery

Astronomers using Chandra and several other telescopes have studied how a black hole ripped apart a star in a distant galaxy. They used this „tidal disruption“ event to measure the spin of the black hole, a fundamental property that has traditionally been difficult to measure. ASASSN-14li was first spotted as an outburst in optical light in November 2014. Chandra, XMM-Newton, and Swift observed the X-rays that were emitted as the stellar debris swirled toward the black hole.

In Photos: SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Launches the Last Iridium Next Communications Satellites

ESA’s detection expertise

What’s the difference between spotting asteroids in space, and debris objects in Earth orbit? At first, both look like tiny dots streaming across the sky, against a backdrop of twinkling stars. As part of its Space Safety & Security activities, ESA brings together experts in asteroid and debris detection, asking what these two vital fields have in common, and how they can protect us from hazards in space.

Planetary Deep Drill completes second field test

Honeybee Robotics has successfully completed a second round of testing on a next-generation drill that might one day burrow deep beneath icy planetary surfaces. The work, which took place in December 2018, builds on a 2015 Planetary Society-sponsored test, and paves the way for an ambitious drilling expedition in Greenland this year.

Israeli non-profit SpaceIL has shipped its privately developed Moon lander, Beresheet, to Cape Canaveral ahead of its mid-February launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The lander, which is one of at least three payloads on the mission, will spend two months traveling to the Moon ahead of a touchdown in Mare Serentitas this April.

Rocket Lab to Launch DARPA Satellite in February

Small launch vehicle developer Rocket Lab will launch an experimental satellite for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in February, the first of a planned dozen launches in 2019. Rocket Lab announced Jan. 22 that it will launch a small satellite for DARPAon the company’s Electron rocket from its launch site in New Zealand. That launch will take place in February, likely late in the month, Rocket Lab Chief Executive Peter Beck said in an interview.

A New Satellite Will (Safely) Drop ‚Meteors‘ Over Hiroshima

There’s a new satellite was just launched into space, and it was put there to drop „meteors“ over the city of Hiroshima. As Live Science has reported in the past, ALE, a Japanese company, has designed a system of small satellites loaded with pellets that should should glow brightly as they fall out of space, with different colors appearing as a result of different compounds burning up in the atmosphere (copper pellets would burn green; barium blue, and so on, including purple). The idea is that cities (or companies or individuals) might pay ALE big chunks of money to drop a handful of those pellets overhead, creating a sort of artificial, colorful meteor shower in the sky overhead.

Science / Wissenschaft

A rich harvest after one year, with 117 kilograms of lettuce, 67 kilograms of cucumbers and 46 kilograms of tomatoes Paul Zabel spent Christmas and New Year’s day at home in the Spreewald. The greenhouse project is continuing with a new AWI overwintering crew and remote operation from the DLR site in Bremen

History / Geschichte

Deep Space 1: Providing a Wealth of New Space Technology

Deep Space 1 (DS1) was a pioneering spacecraft launched in the late 1990s as part of NASA’s New Millennium Program. The primary goal of the spacecraft’s mission was to test dozens of new and groundbreaking technologies that were implemented in future missions, such as Dawn and New Horizons.